sewing and planting

Suddenly summer seems to have happened, and I am torn between indoors and out, so work on Mr P's new shirt has been in and out of the garden..

..which is fine until I get distracted by something that needs planting or watering- luckily our garden is what I like to call 'wildlife friendly', or 'don't look at the weeds'...

We must be doing something right though, as apart from the cursed deer we have frogs, newts, slow worms, grass snakes, squirrels, hedgehogs, bats, birds and, to judge from what the cats bring in, many varieties of small furry squeaky things.

The shirt is actually finished, apart from the hem and the buttons and buttonholes. Its a long time since I made a shirt so I curbed my normal slapdash methods and carefully measured and sewed the correct seam allowances, and if I say so myself it is a good fit. 

Having a decent sewing machine also helps- I bought a new one at the 2011 Festival of Quilts. Its  a Janome, far from the most sophisticated in the range but what a difference from my old one! Its a pleasure to be able to get to the end of a seam without having to constantly adjust the tension to avoid great loops of cotton hiding on the back, or having to remove the bobbin case every five minutes and fiddle about in the works to find the tangle of thread... ahh happy days.

Mr P is pleased with the progress, especially as he has realised that the fabric features an 'orange 5' which is the name of one of his mountain bikes!

The fabric is '2wenty thr3e' by Moda, and the inner collar stand and cuffs are made from a grey fabric with a dictionary of sewing terms on it but I can't remember its name!